03-26-2004, 07:12 PM
I just got off the phone with a central region biologist from the DWR...he told me that lake trout have never been in Strawberry. Also, before the treatment there was brook and brown trout in strawberry. Brown trout did well but were virtually uncatchable as shown by creel surveys!!! Brook trout did OK but never exceeded 3 pounds. He also said that the problem with lake trout is during summer months the deeper water becomes anoxic and trout can only survivie in the upper 30 feet of water this would not bode well for lake trout.
Splake would be a good option in my mind but as for now they are trying to manage Strawberry as a Cutthroat/Rainbow fishery and believe it will work.
One other comment, The problem with small mouth in Strawberry is the short growing season. It has been shown that if young-of-year SMB do not reach a certain size by the end of summer they will not survive the winter. SMB spawn late because of water temp. and only have a short time to grow before water temps become to low again for growth.
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Splake would be a good option in my mind but as for now they are trying to manage Strawberry as a Cutthroat/Rainbow fishery and believe it will work.
One other comment, The problem with small mouth in Strawberry is the short growing season. It has been shown that if young-of-year SMB do not reach a certain size by the end of summer they will not survive the winter. SMB spawn late because of water temp. and only have a short time to grow before water temps become to low again for growth.
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